Last year, on June 8, 2025, Parnia Abbasi, a 23-year-old poet who was set to turn 24 next week, was killed alongside her parents and younger brother when an Israeli missile struck their apartment building in Tehran.

Their bodies were pulled from the rubble shortly after the strike, while their parents’ remains were recovered hours later. 

The Abbasi family had bought a new three-bedroom apartment in the Orkideh Complex on Sattarkhan Street just six months ago — a long-awaited dream that was reduced to rubble.

I share her poem, “The Extinguished Star,” translated by Ghazal Mosadeq –

I wept for both

for you

and for me

you blow at

the stars, my tears

in your world

the freedom of light

in mine

The chase of shadows

you and I will come to an end

somewhere

the most beautiful poem in the world

falls quiet

you begin

somewhere

to cry the

murmur of life

but I will end

I burn

I’ll be that extinguished star

In your sky

like smoke